Simple Celebrates A Decade

SIMPLE is ten years old. 

After the Market Restaurant and a spattering of curry cafes and hard drinking pubs it’s the oldest of the catering establishments in the Northern Quarter. Certainly it’s the oldest surviving bit of boho food and drink in the area. 

“A fifties theme, like a grown-up Grease the musical, seems right. After all our biggest market is women and gay guys and they all love Grease.”

To celebrate the crossing of the tenth landmark there’s going to be a bit of Grease lightening  flashing across Tib Street. Simple will celebrate with an American Street Funfair with cheerleaders, the Pink Ladies of course, rides and prizes for the best 50s costumes. 

Michael Huckerby is the boss of Simple. He told us why he was going Americana crazy. 

“Our inspiration at Simple has always been New York neighbourhood restaurants, that mix of food, drink, chatter and community. We wanted a fun festival: recent Northern Quarter street festivals have been a bit too cool for school.” 

“A fifties theme, like a grown-up Grease the musical, seems right. After all our biggest market is women and gay guys and they all love Grease. Of course we want everybody down here enjoying the fun as well.”

Confidential loves a good generalisation, still the man must know his own audience.

So what is Huckerby most proud of with Simple ten years of feisty life? 

“We’re part of the furniture, we’ve grown with the Northern Quarter and really feel part of the community. We’ve got regulars who’ve arranged to have post and parcels picked up here, we’ve had engagement and redundancy parties. We’re an automatic choice for many people. We even have an Ambassadors' meeting every month with about twenty customers. We share ideas and listen to what areas they think we can improve in and let them know what we're doing.” 

The Ambassadors idea seems very sound. We know of a few businesses that could benefit from that sort of feedback. 

A sense of permanence is good in the city centre. Let’s celebrate Simple’s decade by doing the Mash Potato at the American Street Funfair this Sunday. Whatever the Mash Potato is. 

The Festival runs from noon-8pm. Simple is on Tib Street, M4 1LA, 0161 832 8764. Look up more details here.